Is this normal practice for car dealers?

For Paws

(1) You walk into a car sales room and select a vehicle you'd like.

You enquire what the price, haggle a bit, and then hand over the cash.

You take your car with a statutory guarantee and drive off.
(If the car breaks down the next day, the deals off, he gets the car back &
you get your cash back - I know it doesn't always work out that way, but that's the law).

Having taken out what he paid for the car & any repairs / cleaning that he's done to it to make it presentable he then goes to the bank / bookie / on hols with the cash.

(2) You walk into a car sales room ans select a vehicle you'd like.

You enquire what the trade-in price is, he puts a value on your own car, you haggle a bit, and then hand over the cash, and your car keys.

You take your car with a statutory guarantee and drive off.
(If the car breaks down the next day, the deals off etc.)
However if your old car breaks down the next time the dealer tries to drive it -it's just his tough luck. He has no comeback. Even if it doesn't have any major fault, he still has to do any minor repairs and cleaning, and then hope somebody will buy it off him for more than it cost him.

All of these things combine to mean that the dealer needs a margin.
That margin is the difference between 'cash' price and 'trade-in' price.

creedp

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Simple reason because if your going to trade in your car you will have a fair idea of what its worth, now if you want to trade in at the cash price you will get a trade(not trade in price but what irs actually worth to the dealer) price for your car which will be a fair bit less than tou think its worth. The price to change will be the same as if he bumped up his price because he would bump up yous too to gice you the retail value.

I have done alot of sales lately for straight sale prices and givin trade value for their trade ins but the price would be the same ether way

But that is the point I dont know what the value of my car is to a garage .. I might know what the value is to me or what I think it is worth but in my view that's irrelevant to the price I will get in a trade-in. The point being made earlier was that the ticket price was increased when a trade-in was involved. Why not leave the ticket price alone and give a realistic trade-in value - one that mean's the garage can actually cover the cost of servicing and sale. As you say yourself the end result in the same for the buyer so lets dispense with the gameplay and say it as it is as all it really means is that I know that your 'cash price' is inflated to make me feel better about the value of my pride and joy! As I said that's how I would like to deal .. maybe others would miss the chase ..

kildare.17hmr

Thats what iv been doing lately with alot of people but most people wont accept this way of doing it, they want the cash price for the vehicle they are buying and the full trade in price of what they think their car is worth. You sound like an easy customer to deal with but most people are not thinking the same as you unfortunatly and are more focused on the 2 prices instead of the cost to change

creedp

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

Thats what iv been doing lately with alot of people but most people wont accept this way of doing it, they want the cash price for the vehicle they are buying and the full trade in price of what they think their car is worth. You sound like an easy customer to deal with but most people are not thinking the same as you unfortunatly and are more focused on the 2 prices instead of the cost to change

I find it hard to understand all right. I suppose they might feel like they are winning on the double and it eases their mind somewhat .. cost of change remains the same in any case so everybody's happy. As you say you have to deal with the customer and the customer is always right!! Give them what they want.

Anan1

creedp wrote: »

But that is the point I dont know what the value of my car is to a garage .. I might know what the value is to me or what I think it is worth but in my view that's irrelevant to the price I will get in a trade-in. The point being made earlier was that the ticket price was increased when a trade-in was involved. Why not leave the ticket price alone and give a realistic trade-in value - one that mean's the garage can actually cover the cost of servicing and sale. As you say yourself the end result in the same for the buyer so lets dispense with the gameplay and say it as it is as all it really means is that I know that your 'cash price' is inflated to make me feel better about the value of my pride and joy! As I said that's how I would like to deal .. maybe others would miss the chase ..

When I sold cars, I used to sit customers down and explain how the system worked, ie the difference between the real and the notional value of their trade-in. I did it so that, if they wanted to sell their own car privately before the new car arrived, they'd know what they needed to get to improve on my offer. To be honest, quite a few ended up just looking confused and suspicious.